1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to vehicle component selection systems and methods.
2. Background
Assembling a vehicle within a manufacturing facility may involve a number of components, e.g., wheels and doors, and processes, e.g., attach wheel to vehicle and attach door to vehicle.
Planning for the assembly of a vehicle within a manufacturing facility may involve identifying and assigning the vehicle's components to the appropriate processes. Software may assist with this task. Current software, such as those from Dassault Systems Inc. and UGS, allows a user to manually assign a vehicle component to a process. For example, the user may assign “part number 53X261, 15″×6″ steel wheel” to the process “attach wheel to vehicle.” The user identifies the component to be assigned by inspecting a list containing at least a portion of all the components to be used during the vehicle's assembly. Manually assigning components to processes, however, may be time consuming and inefficient because of the number of components used in the vehicle.
A vehicle may also have several configurations, e.g., two-door, four-door, 4×2, 4×4. Different configurations may require different components, e.g., a two-door configuration may require two doors whereas a four-door configuration may require four doors. When using current software, a user must decide upon a particular configuration and manually assign the components to the appropriate processes. If the user wishes to pick a different configuration, the user must again manually assign each of the components of that configuration to the appropriate processes.